All Blacks coach Graham Henry: my team and I nearly choked before our moment of Rugby World Cup glory

Graham Henry is talking about brain biology and the way in which his players
were educated to deal with pressure in that pulsating World Cup final. It’s
one element of a fascinating campaign which Henry began planning two years
ago to claim the World Cup for New Zealand.

Man with the plan: Graham Henry trained New Zealand not to chokePhoto: GETTY IMAGES

What was your own strategy for dealing with stress, I ask? Henry pauses for a moment. "I needed one," he says. "Particularly in that final. I was chaotic. Anyway. We won’t get into that."

It’s Thursday morning New Zealand time and Henry has just returned home. "The country’s gone mad over here. It’s very humbling. Thousands of people have taken to the streets for parades in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. I got back last night. There’s been a bit of boozing with the guys which has been nice. It’s time to have a sleep."

The satisfaction is palpable and deserved, but here's the thing. Henry is honest enough to admit that he and his team nearly choked in that final, that the strategies which had taken them gloriously and imperiously through the Rugby World Cup to the biggest test of their collective lives all but unravelled. A week down the track and Henry is only now registering how close to disaster New Zealand came against France.

Full disclosure is a tortuous process. "We didn’t play well in the final," Henry acknowledges initially. "But we managed to keep on task and showed a lot of character and quite a bit of discipline. The French played better than we did and that was difficult. But it’s about getting a result and at the finish we managed to do that."

Ask Henry what keeping "on task" means and it becomes clear how off-colour New Zealand were during the final. "It’s about having a very good set-piece, about striking from those set pieces so you’ve got some momentum. It’s about getting quick ball at the tackle and trying to prevent the opposition doing the same. We failed to do that consistently and we failed to play at the right end of the park. But it’s about persevering when those aspects are not going as well as you hoped. Maybe we wouldn’t have won that game 18 months ago."

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That’s the reason why Henry was "chaotic" in the coaches’ box. It wasn’t working on the field, and there wasn’t a great deal he and his fellow coaches could do about it. "When you’re playing in a game where there’s nothing in it and guys are endeavouring to make good decisions on the pitch every 30 seconds or so, the decisions they’re making and the decisions we think they should be making are a wee bit different. But the game is over. I’m not going back there."

Henry’s reluctance to revisit the detail of what many will consider his greatest triumph is understandable because that match does not validate the processes which he put in place and which drove the All Blacks on to recapture the trophy. Those measures are Henry’s real legacy, the stamp of his genius, and they exist as a template as to how international rugby teams should operate.

"There were three basic aspects to what we were trying to do. The first was understanding and acquiring the knowledge and the mental skills to handle pressure. The second was creating an environment where the players self-managed themselves. And the third was making sure everybody has total clarity around the game we were trying to play."

The pressure piece is perhaps the most interesting. "It’s about brain biology and how the brain and the mind react under stress. We wanted to understand how to change a bad mindset to a good mindset. In the final you might have seen Brad Thorn throw water over his face. He found that centred him, brought him back to the present. Other players stomped on the ground during a break in play when they were drifting and losing concentration.

"We’ve all seen guys under extreme pressure who don’t appear to be there. They can’t seem to focus on the requirement at the time and have escaped the reality of their situation. We gave them information about why that occurred and provided triggers to get them back on task. They’re not necessarily big things. Some of the squad found that slapping themselves on the knee helped."

If the thrust of Henry’s mission was to reinforce personal responsibility for performance, there was also an emphasis on empowering the collective.

"We wanted the players to take ownership, so that it became their team, with me and the other oldies viewed as resources. There was a leadership group of Richie McCaw, Mils Muliaina, Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Brad Thorn, Keven Mealamu and Andrew Hore. Some had responsibilities on-field, others off-field. But they assisted each other in both areas. They ran the team. If I could become redundant, then I’d done my job, and that was the same for the manager, Darren Shand. That didn’t quite happen, but our influence was less and less important as all the ideas were cemented in."

Carter remained a pivotal figure in All Black planning even after a significant groin injury ended his tournament. "He stayed with the group and attended all our leadership meetings and was part of the discussion as to which aspects of our menu we would use in particular games. He was hugely important to us."

McCaw, struggling with a foot problem, barely trained at all in the final four weeks, yet the team continued to function.

The final element underpinning the All Blacks was a precise and shared understanding of what game to play, when, against whom.

"We tried to ensure that we were totally on the same page as far as the tactical aspects were concerned, and that my ideas and Richie’s and Daniel’s were black and white and very clear. There was a lot of communication between the coaches and the senior players on what we were trying to do, making sure there was no grey there. That clarity was crucial."

That clarity didn’t survive the final when there was an obvious disconnect between what Henry sought and what McCaw and the rest delivered regarding playing strategy. But maybe, perversely, the players going off message was proof that the journey was complete. Henry had wanted to become redundant. He had wanted his players to work out how to deal with the pressure, and now it was happening. As a nation gathered itself in celebration, a "chaotic" Henry had made himself dispensable.

Graham Henry will coach the Barbarians against Australia on Sat, Nov 26 at Twickenham. For tickets go to www.ticketmaster.co.uk or call 0844 847 2492